Where is our History? The Mystery About Nigeria’s Past

You should be angry. Chances are that you had your primary or secondary school education, or both, in Nigeria.  But could you sum up the history of Nigeria, in a few minutes, without preparation, if asked? I am angry that despite receiving an ‘education’ for over a decade in Nigeria before my departure as a young teenager, I did not know much about Nigeria’s history until I stumbled across it and conducted my personal research years later. And this limited knowledge of the history of Nigeria is peculiar to many people in my generation. We are unhappy about the way things are run in Nigeria. We are frustrated. We want to change Nigeria. Semi-empty aspirations. How can you possibly know where you want to go if you don’t know where you are coming from or how you arrived at where you are? I started becoming angry while watching a two-hour YouTube video documentary titled ‘Naij – A History of Nigeria by Jide Olanrewaju.’ I loved the information that oozed out of every frame of the video; I found myself repeatedly pausing and rewinding to adequately digest what I was seeing. There were footages from colonial and post-colonial times – the kind you only saw if you went through British or American media libraries of archives. The documentary maker was not telling us his views; rather, objectivity was duly allowed as we were presented with undisputable facts presented in the footages and audio and print archives. Despite all that, I became angrier by the minute. How was it ever possible, that despite having being educated during the earlier part of my life in Nigeria, I had never heard of many of Nigeria’s historical events?  How could Nigerians even pass through primary school without sound knowledge of Biafra? How could they be entering JSS1 and not know who Jaja Wachuku was? How could they be preparing for university and not know who Prince Adeleke Adedoyin was? Then they go on to student union activism at Nigerian universities without knowing about Aguiyi-Ironsi or the exact circumstances that led to the various coup d’états crucial to Nigerian history. And eventually, still without ample knowledge, they go on to participate in politics, unfortunately. The ones that do not see politics as their cup of tea rant on about wanting to change Nigeria. In his book, The Life of Reason, published in the early 1900s, American philosopher George Santayana mentioned that those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it. That statement rings true in Nigeria. Nigeria keeps repeating history, repeating same old mistakes, following same old patterns since pre-independence, and amongst many other reasons, the lack of history education is most importantly to blame for this. Education is very important. I believe one of the most crucial political offices to hold in Nigeria is that of education minister or commissioner. Leaders in developed countries have understood this. This is why we see them pumping huge resources into their education sector. Economists like Adam Smith have told us several times that the growth, development and prosperity of any nation are heavily reliant on the education of its citizens. Our developed world counterparts do not have two heads. There is nothing special about their brain. All they have that we don’t have as Nigerians is better education. They are able to become innovators and great thinkers because they have good access to education and their governments encourage them. Nigeria has great thinkers and budding innovators. But their dreams are killed every day by negligence.  The cure for AIDS or cancer may be in the head of a young girl somewhere in northern Nigeria who is being married off at the age of nine, or a boy in the Lagos slum of Makoko, who does not go to school because he has to hawk his mother’s goods so they can eat. Education must be given a priority. This is why I fiercely support educational charities in Nigeria, such as 1Child1Book and Slum2School Project. Winston Churchill famously said: ‘Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.’ And he was right. But the Nigerian education curriculums should not relegate the understanding of historical events to those students who choose to study history at senior secondary and university levels. The same goes for law. Somewhere in curriculums, especially at primary and junior secondary levels, some basic aspects of the Nigerian constitution should be taught very well by teachers who know their stuff. If this had been the case, Nigerians would have thought twice before screaming all over social media last week that Nigerian lawmakers passed a law that said it was fine to marry little girls. If we had had a basic knowledge of the Nigerian constitution, we would have focused our campaign on asking for a redraft of the current law, and proper enforcement, instead of asking that a non-existent law should not be passed. Schools in developed nations take history very seriously. Primary and secondary school students in the UK, for example, are taught the history of their nation in good detail.  You could not pass through primary school in the UK without learning about Heroes of Troy, Anglo-Saxons, World War 2, Romans and Vikings. You could not pass through secondary school in England without hearing about Napoleon or the battle of Waterloo that was fought in 1815, at least once. There are subjects such as Citizenship and General Knowledge, which encourage critical thinking and awareness. In America, high school graduates know a thing or two about the First Amendment. Whenever I voice my anger on my lack of basic Nigerian history education, people ask what school I went to. See, that is the root of the problem. It should not be about the school I attended. Whether I went to the best school in Nigeria or the worst, I should have been taught about the civil war at least! I should not have to be specially privileged to know that years ago, some of my kinsmen were sold into slavery. Even if I was not told the details, it should have been mentioned to me at some point. Things must change. Ignorance is detrimental to the growth of any nation. We cannot change Nigeria with empty heads. We also cannot do anything about the mistakes of the past, except work to rectify it. I try to rectify mine by reading materials of interest relating to Nigerian history. That compensates me for the Nigerian government’s failure in the past to give me good education curriculums. Doing that would also help us make informed comments on political developments in the country, rather than emotional comments filled with unintelligent sentiments. We can make the next generation better, critical thinkers – true leaders of tomorrow. This we can do by improving their education, what they are taught. The government must spend heavily on education and train our teachers in the best ways possible. The history of Nigeria must be well-taught from primary school level. They should be taught in entertaining ways that children will never forget, the same way folk stories are told. I often hear analysts say that for Nigeria to change, Nigerians need a change in the ways they think – a reorientation. I tend to agree. But what reorientation happens without education? Education does not just happen in classrooms; it happens anywhere. But the most effective kind of all-round education, I would argue, starts from the nursery. Until the education sector is properly taken care of, we may never see the Nigeria we so much desire.

Kemi Ogunniyi is an author, magazine editor and communications consultant. She is also a trained broadcast journalist who has done a few stints at the BBC and other reputable media organisations, and holds an MSc in Marketing. She tweets from @kemiogunniyi